What a real life economic collapse looks like I ran across this while in my internet travels. Pretty interesting read. Good site, worth checking out
Did you ever think about what your life would be like if the stores were closed? I’m not talking about a post-apocalyptic Mad Max scenario or a winter storm that clears the shelves. I’m talking about a long-term...

A vertical garden from a 50 gallon drum This set up will let you grow 50 plants in an areas 2ft x 2ft. These barrels are easy to find. Craigslist is generally filled with them. You would prefer food graid and you want to make sure this wasn't carrying anything toxic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufEQ6ZljJBE&x-yt-cl
http://www.half-pinthomestead.com/GardenBarrels.html

Build-a-bag for your car (or for a Christmas present)... As the holiday seasons are upon us and you're probably going to be doing a lot of running around shopping. It's a good idea (if you don't already have one) to put together a little contingency bag for the vehicle. Shopping crowds are ridiculous in some places. Those crowds can cause just as much chaos as a severe weather...

Raised Bed Gardens
Introduction
So you want a vegetable garden, but don't have a large area to till up for the project? Your “soil” is hard as rock? A good way to compensate for such lack of space and rocky soil is by gardening in raised beds. Doing so helps you overcome problems with our less-than-perfect soil.
A raised bed for vegetables...

Lowering your Heat Bill This Winter
Replace old and worn weatherstrip in doors to reduce heat loss and drafts
2. Seal baseboards and caulk windows. This is especially an issue with older homes with wood floors. Cold air can come right up through the baseboards or the windows. Caulk is fairly cheap and this fix will save you BIG.
3....

This article focuses on those who are beginner to novice anglers. Catching worms (nightcrawlers, and the common “redworm”) can be both easy and fun. Nightcrawlers thrive best in warm, moist earth or other areas where compost like earth is abundant. Nightcrawlers come out at night, and can be easily located using a dim source of light (flashlight with a plastic colored cover, or a light stick). Look for nightcrawlers after dark, under vegetation, around compost piles, parks, or anywhere that is damp. Nightcrawlers do not bite, but may feel cold and slimy to the touch. When you locate one, grasp it by the top quickly, and slight pull upwards using gentle soft pressure, until the worm is dislodged from its hole.Continue Reading

• Seaweed mulch or spray. Seaweed contains trace elements such as iron, zinc, barium, calcium, sulfur and magnesium, which promote healthy development in plants. Seaweed fertilizer in mulch or spray form will enhance growth and give plants the strength to withstand disease. Seaweed mulch also repels slugs.

• Minimize insect habitat. Clear garden area of debris and weeds which are breeding places for insects. Use clean mulch.

• Interplant and rotate crops. Insect pests are often plant specific. When plantings are mixed, pests are less likely to spread throughout a crop. Rotating crops each year is a common method to avoid re-infestation of pests which have over-wintered in the bed.

• Keep foliage dry.Water early so foliage will be dry for most of the day. Wet foliage encourages insect and fungal damage to your plants. See our page on drip-irrigation for methods of delivering water to the root systems without wetting the foliage.

• Disinfect. If you’ve been working with infested plants, clean your tools before moving on to other garden areas. This will reduce the speed of invading insects.Continue Reading

Researchers discovered in the 18th century that plants absorb essential mineral nutrients as inorganic ions in water. In natural conditions, soil acts as a mineral nutrient reservoir but the soil itself is not essential to plant growth. When the mineral nutrients in the soil dissolve in water, plant roots are able to absorb them. When the required mineral nutrients are introduced into a plant’s water supply artificially, soil is no longer required for the plant to thrive. Almost any terrestrial plant will grow with hydroponics. Hydroponics is also a standard technique in biology research and teaching.Continue Reading

Pressure canning is the only safe method for canning meat, fish and poultry. It is the only way you can destroy the bacterium that causes food poisoning (clostridium botulinum). Be sure to process canned meats for the correct time at the correct temperature in a pressure canner. Canning low-acid foods, such as meats, in boiling-water canners is absolutely unsafe because the botulinum bacteria can survive this process. If clostridium botulinum survive and grow inside a sealed jar of food, they can produce a poisonous toxin. Even a taste of food containing this toxin can be fatal. Boil foods 10 minutes at altitudes below 1,000 feet to destroy this poison. Boil foods 11 minutes if you live above 1,000 feet.

Regular and instant nonfat dry milk are made from skim milk that has been dried by spraying into hot air. Instant milk is regular milk which has been further processed causing it to clump together which results in a product that is easier to reconstitute with water than is regular nonfat dry milk. They both have the same nutrient composition. Regular nonfat dry milk is more compact and will require less storage space, however, it is harder to reconstitute. The most common type of dried milk to be found in grocery stores is instant nonfat dry milk. Dried whole milk may also be available, however because of the fat present, it will not store as well as nonfat dry milk. Dried buttermilk is available to be used in recipes calling for buttermilk. It will not keep quite as long as nonfat dried milk since is has a slightly higher fat level.Continue Reading

We never know what emergency may befall us during which we may not be able to obtain food or drink. The emergency may be loss of job or inability to work due to accident or illness. This may result in a situation where financial resources to purchase food would not be available or may be decreased appreciably. Natural catastrophe such as flood, earthquake or storms may result in temporary inability to distribute food to supermarkets. Under these conditions even having money to purchase food does not mean it can be obtained. Even in the United States each of the above conditions occurs occasionally. Because of the possibility of such emergencies the Civil Defense recommends storing food and drink adequate for your family’s needs for a two-week period. Certain church organizations have recommended their members “Have on hand a year’s supply of food, fuel, clothing and where possible money.”

WHY HAVE A FOOD STORAGE PROGRAM?

A food storage program is essential to provide for ourselves and our family members in an emergency. The biggest motivator most adults have is to avoid hearing a hungry child cry. Even the most “macho” man is distraught if he cannot provide food or beverage to prevent a child from suffering.Continue Reading

The following is a list of vegetable and herbs which grow well together and protect one another from insect attack. Many herbs are natural insect repellents that can keep your garden bug free and reduce or eliminate the need for potentially harmful pesticides.

By using Companion Planting, many gardeners are discovering that they can discourage garden pests without harming helpful insects such as bees and ladybugs. Some herbs, through their odors or root secretions, will deter pests naturally. An added bonus is; these same herbs, planted as companions in your garden, will season the fruits and vegetables of your labor.

Some herbs even improve the flavor or growth rate of their companion vegetables. Companion planting is the ultimate way to bring the balance of nature into your garden. Just do your best to match the suitable herb with the suitable plant and the rest will follow.

But few people realize what an important vegetable the tomato is. While, it is true that chemical analysis does not place it very high in the nutritive scale, if viewed from this angle alone its real value will be greatly underestimated.

For the reasons which follow, every normal person should make the tomato a very prominent part of the weekly diet:
• It is a vegetable that is easily grown.
• It yields well and keeps for a long time.
• It usually brings a fair price, because nearly everyone likes tomatoes. It contains distinct medicinal virtues (which are recognized by many authoritative books on household remedies), as “vegetable calomel.”
• It is both a relish and an appetizer as well as a food.
• Our soils can be made to bring enormous yields of tomatoes, superior in look, taste, and general appearance.
• They can be prepared in so many delicious ways that one can eat them every day in the week and not get tired of them.
• The old vines contain splendid dye-stuffs, which could be utilized as a by-product for dying fabrics of various kinds.

Spend any amount of time in the outdoors and you have probably found that mealtime is full of trade-offs. Do you choose foods that fuel your body or foods that satisfy your taste buds? Do you spend the extra time to prepare a real meal or grab a protein bar on the go? Freezer Bag Cooking minimizes these trade-offs by changing the concepts of traditional outdoor food. It offers simplicity, convenience and variety. The cooking gear needed is minimal, lightweight and can be bought, found or even made. Meals are prepared at home and put into zip top freezer bags. When ready to eat, the meal is prepared in and eaten out of the freezer bag. Mealtime becomes fast, effortless and cleanup is as easy as licking your utensil and sealing the zip top bag. Also, with meals portioned into individual freezer bags, making meals for multi-day trips, families or a group is painless.Continue Reading